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Britain's €20bn Brexit divorce bill offer is "peanuts", the President of the European Parliament has warned.

Antonio Tajani said the situation was "not good" and "we need to know what the UK wants to do" as he restated Brussels' demands for a financial settlement which could be as high as £53 billion.

In comments that will anger Eurosceptic MPs, Mr Tajani said the UK Government was "not realistic" in its approach to the financial settlement and echoed Margaret Thatcher's language when she secured the British rebate.

Prime Minister Theresa May greets the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani in AprilCredit:
Gareth Fuller/PA

Speaking to BBC's Newsnight, he said: "We need our money back, as Mrs Thatcher said 30 or 40 years ago. This is important for us.

"We need not one euro more, not one euro less."

The figure of around £18 billion (20 billion euro) that Mrs May was offering is "peanuts", he said, with "the real situation" being a sum of around £45- £53 billion (50-60 billion euro).

Last night one of the City’s most senior figures warned that France and Germany risk starting a new financial crisis if they try to use Brexit to dismantle the London-based heart of the global economy “just to make a political point."

Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group, says European leaders who demanded tighter global regulation after the 2008 financial crisis are now threatening to “fragment” those same standards to punish Britain for Brexit.